NOS brands - tape or no?

[Steve56]

I have found a few Japanese razors that have been truly shave ready: San Kan Triple Crown, Ribbon 1000, and my Iwasaki kamisori. And I have a LeGrelot, purchased new, with a fantastic shave ready edge. And the paperwork for the LeGrelot states that it is ready for shaving! And that's it. Everything else must be honed.

Agree, but all of these razors are 60 years old, back when there was a market for SR and the supporting craftsmen. Except maybe the Le Grelot? If you got a new (current) Grelot, which would seem to be a re-branded TI, that’s C135 steel and it takes a fine edge indeed.

 

[JPO]

Allot of my new razors from TI and from DOVO also came with "dings" in the edge from mishandling at the factory. I think you need to plan on doing a full bevel reset to get a new razor in shape allot of the time.
Again, it would be better if you could choose a razor that did not have a bevel at all. It is just as time consuming to take out frowns and correct poor workmanship as it is to just cut in a new bevel.
New bevel free razors, now that would be better then the "shave ready" razor in my opinion.

 

[CpnStumpy]

Allot of my new razors from TI and from DOVO also came with "dings" in the edge from mishandling at the factory. I think you need to plan on doing a full bevel reset to get a new razor in shape allot of the time.
Again, it would be better if you could choose a razor that did not have a bevel at all. It is just as time consuming to take out frowns and correct poor workmanship as it is to just cut in a new bevel.
New bevel free razors, now that would be better then the "shave ready" razor in my opinion.

Yeah, for new the expectation from big manufacturers is of course a mistreated edge. NOS is more interesting in that respect though, and the commentary is kind of all over in this thread with some claiming no blades had bevels from factory, and some declaring they have had specific brands which did.. I guess this is as controversial as taping and I'll forget about it as people argue this or that old brand did have good edges or didn't

I recognize that in current manufacturing I will always want to create my own edge